Iraqis inspect the damage caused by an alleged air raid by Iraqi air force, hitting several districts in Mosul which destroyed 12 houses and injured 9 people, among them women and children. Photo: AAPSource: AAP

IRAQ is on the brink of a civil war as rebel militant Islamic troops pour into Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, to purge it of everything that doesn’t fit their radical interpretation of Islam.

So what exactly is going on in war-torn Iraq? In short, the bombing of ancient religious relics, death threats forcing Christian civilians to flee into the desert, heavy restrictions on women’s rights and orders for genital mutilation. Here’s everything you need to know.

WHO IS ISIS?

ISIS is a violent group of anti-democracy jihadists formed in 2013, with an extremist Islamic vision. The group are jihadist members of the Sunni branch of Islam. ISIS has carried out a series of attacks on humanitarian aid organisations and religious groups and are known for terrorist propaganda videos that show them executing innocent civilians.

Supporters of Lebanese Christians Phalange party hold banners during a protest in solidarity with the Christians of Mosul, Iraq in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, July 24, 2014. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)Source: AAP

RECENT BOMBING ANCIENT RELIGIOUS RELICS

Residents of Mosul have watched helplessly as extremists ruling the northern Iraqi city blew up some of their most beloved landmarks and shrines to impose a stark vision of Islam. Nearly daily, the militants have been destroying some of the city’s most famed sites.

On Thursday, they lay a wall of explosives around the Mosque of the Prophet Younis — or Jonah, the prophet who in both the Bible and Koran was swallowed by a whale. They ordered everyone out of the shrine, which is said to contain the prophet’s tomb, and blew it up.

The next day, it was the turn of the Mosque of Sheeth, or Seth, said to be the burial site of the third son of Adam and Eve. On Saturday, they reduced to rubble the Mosque of the Prophet Jirjis.

The Church of Mary is seen abandoned after Islamic militants closed it and brought the cross down from the rooftop in Mosul, Iraq. (AP Photo)Source: AAP

Last week, they removed the crosses on the domes and brick walls of the 1,800-year old Mar Behnam monastery, then stormed it, forcing the monks and priest to flee or face death.

But over the weekend, residents pushed back, staging a protest around one of the city’s most beloved landmarks, the Crooked Minaret.

When ISIS fighters loaded with heavy explosives converged on the site, locals living nearby rushed to the courtyard below the minaret, sat on the ground and linked arms to form a human chain to protect it, two residents who witnessed the event told The Associated Press on Monday.

They told the fighters, “if you blow up the minaret, you’ll have to kill us too,” the witnesses said.

The militants backed down and left, but residents are certain the militants will try again.

An Iraqi family fleeing violence in the northern city of Tal Afar walks through the Khazer camp near the Kurdish checkpoint of Aski kalak, 40km West of Arbil. AFP PHOTO / SAFIN HAMEDSource: AFP

THREATENING CHRISTIANS, ORDERING THEM TO CONVERT TO ISLAM OR DIE

Mosul is a city that has long been home to diverse faiths with a Christian population of around 100,000 a decade ago. But attacks on Christians since the 2003 US military occupation to subdue Saddam Hussein have seen those numbers drop significantly.

Mosul residents estimated the city’s Christian population before last month’s militant takeover to be around 5,000.

But days after ISIS militants proclaimed over loudspeakers from mosques that Christians must convert to Islam, pay an exorbitant and unaffordable tax or “die by the sword”, Christians all over the city were forced to flee their homes, leaving only an estimated 200 in the city.

Displaced Iraqi Christians who fled with families from Mosul city wait at Virgin Mary church in Qaraqosh village near Mosul city, northern Iraq on 20 July 2014. EPA/MOHAMMED AL-MOSULISource: AAP

Mosulis who cannot bear the extremists’ rule have joined more than a million other Iraqis who have fled their homes in areas under the group’s control.

“The situation is becoming really miserable for us,” said Abdul-Rahman Odai, a 25-year-old from Mosul who fled to the Kurdish province of Dohuk with his family. He said militants have seized government buildings and the homes of local officials. “They will not stop until they take everything.”

WOMEN’S RIGHTS HEAVILY RESTRICTED

Women’s rights are now being abruptly restricted too. Last week ISIS ordered that all women between the ages of 11 and 46 must undergo humiliating genital mutilation.

The militants hung banners at on the wall of the Heibat Khatoun mosque before Friday prayers instructing women to wear loose clothing and cover their faces. No bright colours. No patterns.

“Even at the time of Prophet Muhammad, the there was no face veil,” said Um Farouq, 55, a Mosul resident. “These people with Daesh are just making up ideas that do not exist in Islamic Shariah,” she said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

According to ISIS new laws, women in Iraq will no longer be able to walk in public without full head covering. (AP Photo)Source: AAP

A REPEAT OF THE ISIS CONTROL OF SYRIA

The group had already shown its true colours in Syria, where it holds a large swath of the east and north. There, its fighters have banned music, imposed full veils, imposed taxes on Christians and killed people in main squares for defying their Shariah rules. Earlier this month, for the first time, they stoned to death two women accused of adultery.

Iraq’s Mosul was once famed for its religious and ethnic diversity, and it is one of few cities in Iraq where a significant number of Christians remained after the U.S.-led invasion. It was a traditional stronghold both for Islamic conservatives and more secular pan-Arab nationalists.

A SUDDEN ATTACK AFTER A ‘PEACFUL’ OCCUPATION

When militants from the Islamic State group first swept into in Mosul in June, they proclaimed themselves the mainly Sunni city’s saviour from the Shi’ite-led Iraqi government in Baghdad. Their first priority was to rebuild infrastructure and provide services like garbage collection that the government had neglected. They held off from implementing their strict version of Islamic law, urging modesty for women but doing little to enforce it and generally leaving alone the Christian population that had not already fled.

Displaced Iraqi Christians who fled with families from Mosul city receives humanitarian aid at Virgin Mary church in Qaraqosh village near Mosul city, northern Iraq on 20 July 2014. EPA/MOHAMMED AL-MOSULISource: AAP

The aim, it seemed, was to avoid alienating a Sunni community whose support they needed.

Now, the honeymoon is over. In recent weeks, they have purged the city of nearly its entire Christian population, moved to restrict women and began the systematic destruction of city landmarks.

Over the past two weeks, the extremists ruling Iraq’s second largest city have shrugged off previous restraint and embarked on a brutal campaign to purge Mosul of anything that challenges their radical interpretation of Islam. The militants — though Sunnis — target shrines revered by other Sunni Muslims because the sites are dedicated to popular religious figures. In the radicals’ eyes, that commits one of the worst violations of Islam: encouraging worship of others besides God.

“No place is safe,” said Dia, an engineering professor in Mosul. “If I say one wrong thing, I am dead.”

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